AJ Alix is gaining a reputation as one of the best distributors in the nation.

Coming into Florida State’s game against Stetson on Thursday, Alix was tied for fifth in the nation in assists per game. In the past, the redshirt senior point guard has said she enjoys playing with a pass-first mentality because her teammates can definitely finish the plays she sets up.

Things were a bit different Thursday night.

In front of 3,403 fans in the Tucker Civic Center, Alix lit up the scoreboard, scoring 14 first-half points en route to a 19-point performance in the Seminoles’ 84-39 win over the Hatters.

Alix hit seven of her nine shot attempts and when 5 for 6 from 3-point range.

“It starts with my teammates,” Alix said. “I’m looking to get them the ball a ton. When I’m looking to get them the ball, my shot starts to open up. Just being around them, them giving me confidence and telling me to shoot the ball I think that’s a pretty good feeling.

"Who wouldn’t want that?”

Head coach Sue Semrau said Alix and sophomore guard Nicki Ekhomu are always in the gym shooting after practice. Ekhomu tied her career high with 16 points against the Hatters. She also had seven rebounds and four assists.

Alix was one of five Seminoles in double-figures Thursday night. The Seminoles’ balanced attack was in sharp contrast to Stetson’s approach. The Hatters shot 24.6 percent from the field and got 19 of their 39 points from guard Brittney Chambers. She shot 6 for 21 from the field.

Of course, Alix still got her assists. She ended the game with six.

Alix settled in after an early turnover, which led to a Stetson layup. When head coach Sue Semrau called a time out follwing that sequence, Alix got an earful.

Her mistakes were minimal after that. In fact, after halftime, the Seminoles played with new energy, outscoring Stetson 46-18 over the final 20 minutes. The Seminoles had eight turnovers in the first half, but just three in the second half.

“I didn’t have to say anything to them; they knew,” Semrau said about halftime. “They knew they weren’t playing their best.”

Alix had to leave the court briefly after taking an elbow to the face in the third quarter.

“Just got a little elbow to the face,” Alix said with a laugh. “Had to take a little breather for a second. I’m fine.”

Another Sixth Player of the Year?

Alix wasn’t the only guard lighting up the scoreboard Thursday night.

Sophomore Nicki Ekhomu score 16 points off the bench for the Seminoles, breaking out of a recent scoring slump. She shot 6 for 10 from the field and hit both of her 3-point attempts.

At 5-foot-9, Ekhomu is the second-shortest player on the Seminoles’ roster (AJ Alix is listed at 5-foot-6). She still was third on the team in rebounds Thursday night with seven.

“The coaches told me I’ve kind of been lax lately, so they’ve been telling me just to find that aggression lately and just keep on that.”

If she keeps this up, she could be Florida State’s fourth-consecutive Sixth Player of the Year. Shakayla Thomas won it twice, and Chatrice White won it last season.

“It’s hard not to put her in the starting lineup,” Semrau said. “When she comes off the bench and she can give us that energy and that spark, it’s a lot of fun to have that.”

Home test up next

The Seminoles (9-0) don’t get much time to celebrate Thursday’s victory. Next, the team faces Arizona State at 2 p.m. on Sunday in the Tucker Civic Center.

The Sun Devils have been a challenging out for the Seminoles in recent years. The two teams didn’t face each other during the 2016-17 season, but they met in back-to-back years before that.

FSU faced the Sun Devils in the Sweet 16 of the 2015 NCAA tournament. It was one of FSU’s closest games of the season, and the Seminoles came away with a 66-65 win to advance to the program’s second-ever Elite Eight.

Semrau said there’s been plenty of anticipation for the Sun Devils.

“I think there’s been kind of an anxious excitement about what’s coming up on Sunday,” she said. “This is a team that, they don’t overlook their opponents, but they also know what they can do.”